Henry Bell Insect Oil Balls – 8 Pack

Henry Bell Insect Oil Balls – 8 Pack

Eight fat balls built on insect oil rather than beef tallow. Henry Bell make the oil from black soldier fly larvae, which is a good deal closer to what an insect-eating bird would find for itself than rendered beef fat is, and it is the reason robins and long-tailed tits take these when they will walk past an ordinary suet ball.

Fat balls are the most calorie-dense thing on a feeding station and the food that gets small birds through a freezing night. Eight of them is a proper run of feeding on a single cage in midwinter, or considerably less than that once the starlings find them.

Performance & Benefits

• Eight fat balls made with insect oil from black soldier fly larvae instead of traditional beef tallow.
• Henry Bell say the larvae carry more Vitamin B12 than salmon, twice as much protein as beef and chicken, and ten times more calcium than beef.
• Lauric acid in the oil, which Henry Bell link to feather growth, weight gain and metabolism.
• High fat content makes these the most efficient thing you can put out in a cold snap.
• Feed from a fat ball feeder, a cage feeder or a bird table.
• Calcium counts most in spring, when laying females need it.

Suitable For

• Robins, long-tailed tits, great tits, blue tits, dunnocks and starlings.
• Hard frosts and cold snaps, when small birds burn their reserves overnight.
• The breeding season, when insect protein is what adult birds are already hunting for.
• Feeding stations that carry a fat ball cage or a 3-in-1 squirrel proof feeder.
• Not usable in a tube seed feeder. Henry Bell No Mess Mix is the food for those.

Feeding

• Put the balls in a fat ball feeder or cage feeder. Left loose on a table they will be carried off whole.
• Feed year-round, and keep to a routine once you start, because birds come to depend on it.
• Replace any ball that has gone soft, sour or mouldy rather than adding fresh on top.
• Clean the feeder with a bird-safe hygiene spray between fills.
• Keep fresh water alongside for drinking and bathing.

Composition & Analysis

• Made with Henry Bell's Insect Oil, derived from black soldier fly larvae, in place of beef tallow.
• Supplied as a pack of eight balls.
• Henry Bell publish no ingredient list and no analytical constituents for the Insect Oil balls, so no protein, oil, fibre or ash figure is stated here.
• For comparison, Henry Bell do publish full figures for their No Mess Mix, No Grow Mix, peanuts and mealworms.

Care & Caution

• If any ball is supplied inside a plastic or nylon net, take the net off before it goes outside. Nets snag beaks and trap feet, and birds are injured by them every year.
• Fat softens in warm weather and can smear onto plumage, which spoils waterproofing. Move the feeder into shade in summer, or take it down in a heatwave.
• Pick up any balls that fall where a dog can reach them. A high-fat lump eaten off the lawn can bring on pancreatitis.